Thursday, August 21, 2008

Statistics

While visiting someone's blog the other day, I noticed a little map. It had red dots on it, and one corresponded to my town. Wow, I thought, they know somebody who lives near me! After looking really carefully, I discovered they also knew somebody who lived in the same town as my son, and even his in-laws.

What? OK. I finally figured out that it's a tracking map. Anyone who visits their blog is added to the map that day. Cool. So now I'm trying to determine if I want a map on my blog page as well. Where would I put it?

I spent a couple of days analyzing potential options. I visited the map web site and realized that I had six choices of pin style. Eight colors. Wow. I spent a great deal of time designing my map. I decided where it would fit the best. What colors would match my background. I had it pretty much arranged. Then I had an ugly thought.

Back in the sixties there was a saying: "What if they gave a war and nobody came?" Suddenly I thought, what if I put up a map, and nobody visits my blog. I'll have a fancy map, and no pins sticking in it. Do I really want statistics?

I concluded that there was a reason for the old saying ignorance is bliss. You'll notice there's no map in the sidebar, but I'm smiling.